Champagne through the generations

In 1929 - while France was in the grips of an economic crisis and traders had stopped buying grapes to make Champagne- a young wine-growing couple decided to make and sell their own.

Each morning, Rene Schloesser would stow the Champagne he had made with wife Lucie into his bicycle panniers and ride it down to the local railway station before waving it off to Paris, where family members would sell it for them.

Fast-forward four generations, and this lovingly-made produce has made its way around the world - including to Sheffield, writes Gael Stigant.

Since 1950 it has been called Champagne Tribaut-Schloesser, after René and Lucie’s daughter Suzanne combined her vineyard holdings with husband Jean Tribaut’s.

Today the newest generation, Valentin and Sebastien Tribaut, are still creating fine Champagnes for life’s most wonderful moments of celebration.

It felt almost wrong, but oh-so-right, to be sipping this delicate and sophisticated fizz last Wednesday night at the West 10 wine bar and restaurant in Ranmoor.

“We don’t make wine to sell it - we first make wine to drink it,” Valentin tells us as we tuck into a five-course meal that has been created to showcase his Champagnes at their best.

From the fresh and fruity Brut Origine to the gold medal-winning Millésime 2009 vintage, you can taste the passion that has gone into making them.

The Blanc de Chardonnay goes beautifully with the scallops with cauliflower sauce executed brilliantly by the chefs at West 10.

And although the chocolate orange mousse overpowered the Brut Rosé, both were delicious in their own right as well.